Well, my last few days have been pretty busy. I have been splitting my attention between three main tasks.

  The first is meditating. On this front, I have nothing particular to report other than I am doing it. As my master said, mana sense is too closely linked with the soul for me to be able to do anything about it. Right now, the lack of my mana sense is affecting me. I am not even supposed to have it at the present stage of my cultivation. (Most people need to reach the fifth foundation slab for their mana sense to awaken. My soul is stronger than most people.)

  At least the meditation is going well. I can feel my mana sense recover a bit. I can't still reach very far, but there is an improvement. I can barely reach the door to my room. Even beyond it, it is kind of like a blurry blob. (It is so vague I can't even tell if it is real or something I am imagining though.)

  It is still too vague for it to have any use but seeing it return is a very good thing. I had forgotten just how much I tend to rely on my mana sense.

  The second task that I am doing is a bit more fruitful. I have been piloting this ship ever since my master entered the storage room to study tattoo magic. I have yet to be attacked, though that is to be expected. I have not entered into the soldar plains. Once we enter the place though traveling is going to be a pain to deal with.

  The thing is that I have yet to fix my master's cannons into the ship. My master has provided me with two cannons. One is of the fire element and has a decent range (fire cannons are always the most destructive to the wooden airships.). The other is a light-based cannon with a pretty ridiculous range. Looking at these cannons I want to shoot them at least once.

  I haven't yet linked the cannons to the ship. I know I was supposed to do that immediately, (after all, who has heard of a ship this good without a cannon.) but it taking time. My master's notes are pretty clear, but there is just so much to study.

  I still have time. After all, we are still in the north. The only real threat of pirates here is if they were to suddenly appear in front of me. (The chances of that happening are pretty miniscule.) My master's propulsion formation is good enough to leave any ship that a pirate will have in the dust.

  The problem will begin when I enter the soldar plains. The pirates there will not leave my ship alone. I will have to put in the cannons before then. There has to be something to intimidate the enemy.

  The funny thing is that we had the opposite problem while going to the frozen peak. While coming we had such a pretty trashy ship that nobody attacked us in the soldar plains. It would have been a waste of time for them. We were swamped en route to the north because the pirates could not find a trashier ship to attack.

  Now that I think about it, whatever did happen to the ship. I assume that it is right now in the hands of the snowwinders. Considering it was already theirs to begin with, I am sure that they will be keeping it. Even a useless ship like that has its value. They might study the modifications that I have done to the formations.

  They might remove all the working formation cores on that ship. (the only thing that is of any real value is the formation core of the propulsion formation. I really want to see how they will get that to work now.) Heck, they might at the very least be able to cut the entire thing and use it to light up a bonfire.

  As for the scholars and my troop, they will be escorted by the soldiers of the snowwind empire to the hexmountain. I can imagine that it must have taken quite a bit of bargaining to achieve even that. The snowwinders are going to be pretty hostile toward us for the foreseeable future.

  That must be another reason that the head office is so pissed off with me. (That and the fact that I wasn't supposed to be going on that mission.) They do not like to commit more resources to a place that already has a resource committed to it.

  While all of that is fine, it is my studies that are consuming most of my time. Just studying the theory of the fusion spell and I am starting to lose my mind in frustration. My progress with the spell has been painfully slow.

  It is complicated beyond belief. Well, the main reason that it is so complicated is mainly because the formation deals with the soul. I can now see why my master has restricted me to only studying the first ten pages. Even that is something that I will be able to pull off barely.

  Based on what I have understood the spell has two components. The first component is the physical component. This component is quite easy. It is kind of like an inscription that I have to do on my core formation, which is my sword. It is somewhere in complexity between a class nine spell and a class eight spell.

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  It is the soul component of the spell that is annoying. Their complexity is beyond the complexity of the foundation slab as well. This is made on the top of my foundation slab.

  The process of putting it on my foundation slab would require me to destroy a small part of my foundation slab. This is not going to be easy. Once created the foundation slab is essentially a part of the mana core. It will be a bit easier to do when the foundation slab has just been set and when it is still becoming a part of my mana core. With a fully set foundation slab that is going to be a very painful process. I don't even want to imagine it right now.

  I can see why my master is so worried about me learning this path. Messing with the mana core is not something that you do lightly.

  Well, there is no way in hell that I will be trying this to my already set foundation core. I am going to do that the last. For now, I will do it to my second foundation slab which I have yet to complete. It is at about three-fourths completion and if I were to focus on it a bit, I think that I will be able to complete it in time to try the spell.

  With that out of the way, I guess I should explain what this spell is supposed to do. It is going to give me two main benefits. Well, the primary benefit of this spell is the fusion which will essentially give me almost god-like control over the primary formation.

  To explain this, I will have to explain what my sword is exactly and what exactly bloodline stimulation is.

  I am not a warlock to have a perfect idea of what bloodline stimulation is, but I have a decent enough idea about it. Every warlock is supposed to have a bloodline inside their body. Their entire field of study tends to be the activation of this bloodline to give them abilities. It lets them grow new body parts, make use of spells that they should not be able to and so much more.

  While I don't have too much of an idea on how to do it, I have had access to a few spells of theirs. I made use of one such spell to make my sword. A vampire's bone acts as their mana core and their blood vessels act as their mana channels. Every moment, a vampire's vital mana is converted into blood mana by going into their bone.

  I have managed to achieve the same thing with my sword. When I activate the formation on it, it stimulates the power of the sword and lets me convert my vital mana to blood mana.

  This process is achieved by absorbing the life force of any person whose blood is spilled onto the sword. The only condition to this is that my sword has to touch their blood. The more blood it touches the stronger the bond formed and the more blood mana is produced.

  This blood mana then I inject into my body, giving me most of the abilities of a vampire grunt. It lets me heal faster, move faster and hit harder. My senses get sharp as well. It lets me fight better.

  The problem is that I do not have precise control over the formation. I can either keep it shut down completely or force it to work at a hundred percent. There is no in-between. That makes my sword useful only for direct combat. If you have seen a vampire you would know that I am capable of so much more.

  If my master's hypothesis is true, then it would mean that I would be able to control the formation precisely. I will just use as much blood mana as I need. That would certainly let me use the sword better.

  Well, even if that is not the case, this will solve another problem for me. The other problem with my sword is the fact that my body is not built to accept blood mana. Even if it takes my vital mana to create this blood mana, it can be considered to be a foreign mana. Thus I can't use my sword for too long. It is basically like poisoning myself. If I were to use it for too long, then it might take me months to heal from the damage inflicted.

  For how much I use my sword, I don't know how I am supposed to deal with this. My master has been doing research into it for the last few years (since my discipleship began actually) and this is his answer. If my master's logic is right, then once the fusion occurs, blood mana is going to become a part of my vital mana.

  As any person who cultivates vital mana will tell you, changing your vital mana will change your body. Your body will adapt to that vital mana. That is why the bastards in the east can achieve their elemental bodies. My master hopes that these changes will make my body more suitable for managing blood mana. If that occurs, my body should become more like a vampire's. There is no way that I will be able to become a full vampire, but I will become something close to it.

  The process of transformation is supposed to be very violent. Based on the records we have heard about it, it rips your flesh and bones to create a body that will function purely on blood mana. Just hearing about it I can tell that it is supposed to be pretty painful.

  Who wants to be a full vampire anyway? Most are susceptible to holy magic. They can't enter the defensive barriers of most cities. The older vampires are not even able to handle the sun. On top of all of this, there is the thirst. A nearly unquenchable lust for blood. (A fun fact, this is the reason that most vampire grunts are caught in the first place. Not drinking blood is supposed to be like being in a desert to them it seems.)

  Before ending the lot though I will have to point out that all of this is purely speculation and theory. Neither of the things that I have described could happen. Either could happen. Even if they did happen, it might not lead to the outcome that we are hoping for.

  The only way to verify this is to pull it off and see what will happen to me. That is something that is going to take me a very long time to achieve.

  Thinking about all of this makes me wish that I was progressing on something at least. It almost feels like I have been doing everything and achieving nothing the last few days. Still doesn't mean that I can let myself stop working though.